The Magic Of Grace

Questions & Answers

Gurudev, our horoscope is based on our birth time. If the birth time is unknown, does that mean our horoscope is wrong?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

If the timing is correct, interpretation is right. You can never say that it is 100% right. There is a probability of it being 80%-90% correct. And there is always an adrushya (invisible), i.e., an unknown influence. It can happen anytime and that is what is called grace. So grace has the ability to change anything at anytime.

Shastras (scriptures) have their significance.Like for instance, a boy was born and the father went to the astrologer to show his son's horoscope. The astrologer said that your son is very great. There will be many cars around him all the time around, and he will have the ability to stop anybody at anytime. So the parents thought that their son is going to become a big minister, or the president, and he will be surrounded by a fleet of cars but the son became a policeman. Today of course there are traffic lights which have come, but twenty years ago there were not as many traffic lights but only policemen who direct traffic.The father came and fought with the astrologer, 'You told me that my son will be surrounded by a fleet of cars, but he has become a policeman'.The astrologer said, 'See my prediction has come true even now. He is a traffic policeman and he is surrounded by many cars'.

Another astrologer said to someone, 'You will be hit by a bullet in your head'. But what happened one day, the person was wearing a big hat and something did come, but it hit the hat and took the hat away.So there is a saying in Tamil, 'What came to head went off with my hat'. So a big trouble which would have come, by grace it went away in a small way. So here the scripture is also proved right, but at the same time you were in a right place at the right time.

Dear Gurudev, how to act passionately after being trained to be dispassionate?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

You cannot create passion, when you love something it simply comes to you. You cannot ask me how do I love something, there is no way, no method.Sometimes repetition might create an attachment but I wouldn’t say it is love. I have seen people who are fighting and when one person is not there anymore or has gone far away then one feels some sort of vacuum suddenly. Every day you are fighting with someone and suddenly that person is not there, what to do now? This is a sort of attachment, but passion that is something which cannot be cultivated, it just comes to you. Dispassion can be cultivated to some extent but compassion and passion cannot be cultivated.

Gurudev it is said that energy cannot be created or destroyed, then how can one get moksha? What does jeevan mukti mean?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Moksha is a drop merging in the ocean. It cannot make the ocean disappear, nor the drop stop its existence totally. The drop merges in the ocean and become the ocean. Like the space in a pot cannot be destroyed, it can only merge with the greater space, and when the mud pot breaks the space inside and outside becomes one. That is what moksha is, realizing that 'I am free, I am space, I am not just the body, body is the container but I am the spirit'.To simply speak ultimate inner freedom.

Dearest Gurudev, how to be compassionate towards others those who do not behave properly with us. I find being compassionate more difficult than getting angry or irritated.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

If you broaden your vision you will see this from a different angle. You will feel sorry for the person with whom you are getting angry. Their behavior is rude because somewhere in their psyche there is roughness, discomfort, and uneasiness. They have not received as much knowledge or love as much as you have. They don’t have that much wisdom, and that is why they are behaving in this way. When this understanding comes to you, then compassion also will come.

Gurudev, the wise talk about the mindfulness, doesn't a person become unnatural being mindful always?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Mindfulness is a practice that you do time and again. It may appear to be some effort in the beginning but later on it becomes an effortless process. That’s how it is.

After death will a person come back into another karmic body?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

See karma cannot be dissolved without a body. So one has to come back to the body to dissolve all the karmas. But moksha is possible.Moksha means relief from pain, relief from sufferings, relief from ignorance; the whole knowledge is about this only. The spiritual path helps one to release themselves from all of this.